Air around Capitol is thick with Pork

This is the time to watch your representatives in Washington. If you will pay attention to these people for the remaining weeks this year, you could save your country billions of dollars and knock thousands off your tax bill for years to come.

The new fiscal year began on October 1 and the new Democrat-led Congress is just now getting around to passing the 12 appropriations bills that make up the federal budget.

Congress traditionally is late with this essential task, but this is its worst performance in the last twenty years. The biggest problem is all the rhetoric that was expended by Democrats on how they were going to get a handle on runaway spending — especially those wasteful pork barrel projects that ballooned during the last12 years under Republican rule. All that hot air is now hitting the fan and the blowback has greedy politicians of both political stripes running for cover.

It would be comical if the end result wasn’t so damaging to the average family’s budget. The sad part of all of this is that — unless you are willing to pay attention (and most people won’t) – your member of the House of Representatives and your two senators will find a way to explain their way out of the part they played in passing the bills that contain billions of dollars in waste. You will keep right on electing these culprits who ought to be unceremoniously dumped at the earliest opportunity.

At long last (much too long), President Bush has vetoed a couple of spending bills, the Water Resources Development Act and the Labor, Education andHealth and Human Services appropriations bill. Technically the former doesn’t spend a dime. However, it authorizes Congress to spend billions of dollars down the road.

In May, the Senate passed its version of the water bill which contained $14 billion in federal projects. The House passed a $15 billion version. By the time it got out of conference, this bill had ballooned to $23 billion. There were millions of dollars of pet projects dropped in by congressmen and senators in the dead of night. That’s a 64-percent increase in just four months! However, Congress shamelessly voted to override the president’s veto.

When this bill came out of conference, it was so loaded with pork projects that only 54 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against overriding the president’s veto: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1040.xml. In the Senate, only 12 Republicans (Allard, Brownback, Burr, Coburn, DeMint, Ensign, Enzi, Gregg, Kyl, McConnell, Sessions, and Sununu) and two Democrats (Feingold and McCaskill) voted against the override. This is shameful!

At this writing, a vote to override the president’s veto of the pork-ridden Labor, Education and HHS bill has not been taken.

Bush can’t run for reelection but all of those House members who voted to override his veto are up for reelection next year and one-third of our senators terms expire with each congressional election.

If you want to be a good citizen, take names. Put them in a safe place and vote these people out of office when their numbers come up. They are the enemies of all hardworking taxpayers and your children and grandchildren!

In 1995, after 40 years of Democrat control, the new Republican majority stood up to President Clinton to try to pass a budget that would reach balance. After taking the blame for two government shutdowns, they lost their nerve and took the road of least resistance.

In 2007, it has taken even less time for Democrats to lose their way.

Spending our money gives lawmakers power, especially on wasteful pork barrel projects known as “earmarks,” which serve a narrow interest and should not be in the federal budget. Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation have unveiled a new 10-point Earmark Reform Pledge for representatives and senators, who will actively oppose the practice, to sign. So far, only seven lawmakers have signed that pledge.

When it comes to wasting our money, it has become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the two parties. They party in power is first in line at the feeding trough and it can’t resist the temptation to spend, spend, spend.

The donkey symbol of the Democrats stands for solidarity, hard work, and reliability. The elephant symbol of the Republicans stands for intelligence and steadfastness. Funny, I don’t see donkeys and elephants anymore. I see a pig – the symbol of fat and excess. Actually, I don’t see a real pig. It’s a costume, with Democrats hiding under one end and Republicans hiding under the other end.

I believe that most of those in our House and Senate have the brains of a chicken. They all need to be voted out of office, and a new slate of trustworthy, thinking, patriotic people be elected to office.

We have developed a nation of people who keep wanting, but never giving. People need to wake up!

Dick, The donkey became the symbol of the Democrat Party as a result of a slur directed at Andrew Jackson. His detractors called him a “jackass.” You could make the case that the tail would be more appropriate. However, they now control Congress. They are in the lead, and bear most of the responsibility (and the blame) so I would give them the head.

Byron, Bravo! Keep the handful that sign the earmark pledge and dump the rest!

“In 1995, after 40 years of Democrat control, the new Republican majority stood up to President Clinton to try to pass a budget that would reach balance. After taking the blame for two government shutdowns, they lost their nerve and took the road of least resistance”

This statement of your’s is historically inaccurate. the real story is that the final clinton budget came in with an $18 billion dollar deficit and a projected surplus of over $200 billion for the next year (Bush’s first).

Bush, and his republican congress, looked at the surplus as a windfall for them and went wild spending like drunken sailors, adding trillions of dollars to our national debt until they were thrown out of office – save Bush – in 2006.

Now that dems are in charge of congress, suddenly Bush wants to be a budget hawk. It has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with his true budget feelings. If his “boys” were in charge he would be throwing all the money around just like before.

This is the main reason we need to elect anyone other than Huckabee…who is just Bush Part II.

M.B. We are both right. I am talking about the budget plan that covered a five year period that was adopted in 1995. Clinton had proposed one that had deficits as far as the eye could see. Republicans had proposed one that would reach balance. I put up five columns (under Clinton budgets) just for you that I wrote about that budget fight that covered that period and should provide a good history lesson.

After that budget fight the Washington Post published the results of a poll that showed that the American people had no idea that the Republican Congress had proposed a budget that reached balance. At that point most Republicans lost threw up their hands and said, “What’s the use.” At that point they gave up and became part of the problem.

Clinton finally gave us a tax cut in 1997 — that and the bubble in the stock market produced record surpluses which were not anticipated. The Republican-led Congress quickly gobbled them up.